fandomhigh | First Aid for Fandom

"Good morning," Hannibal said, nodding to the students. "This is the class on first aid for Fandom; if you aren't in the right place, you may leave, but you might want to remain regardless." He waved to a table off to the side. "There are coffee, tea, and pastries."

He smiled. "Which might be considered their own sort of first aid, knowing the reliance people often place on mild stimulants such as caffeine and sugar."

He was drinking coffee himself, as it happened. "For those of you who may not know me, I am Doctor Hannibal Lecter. I generally teach cooking or food-related classes, but I thought I would take a slight detour this semester, since this is a subject many people sorely need."

Pun fully intended, naturally.

"If you are wondering, I am in fact a medical doctor as well as a PhD. I received my doctorate from Paris Descartes, and completed my internship and recertification at Johns Hopkins as a trauma surgeon." Because high school students here absolutely cared about his credentials.

"We will be covering any number of first aid procedures and practices, but as today is traditionally for introductions, please," he gestured to them, "introduce yourselves by name, let me know what sort of place you're coming from, and tell us all what sort of experience you have in healing or medicine and what you would hope to encounter in this class. And please, all of you, feel free to rearrange your chairs and desks in any way you like, sit on the floor, or walk about, as you please."

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"And your PhD is in....?"

Peridot didn't mean to drill you further on those credentials, Hannibal, but 'many subjects' didn't narrow things down very well, and 'philosophy' wasn't something that she really had any experience with.

"Psychology," Hannibal said, then explained, "the science involving the human mind. Or presumably any sentient mind, although the world that I came from had only human sentients."

"Presumably any sentient mind," Peridot mused. "I wonder how well your 'psychology' would relate to a Gem's mind, come to that."

It was science. Peridot liked science. Win.

"It would be interesting to discover," Hannibal said. "There are sections of knowledge that would be obviously inapplicable, such as eating disorders, and others that might require quite a different approach - Gems do not have families, but I imagine you do have those you are close to? I would be fascinated to learn how different Gems of the same type and birthplace develop differing personalities."

"Time and experience," Peridot offered. "When a Gem emerges, she is what she was made to be, with a few small differences. Gem placement, quality of their Kindergarten... A lot can change a Gem's personality, though it takes far longer than most humans even live, for the most part."

Or some immediate trauma, perhaps.

Hannibal nodded. "Much the same as for humans. But humans being much more structurally diverse, it's difficult to tell how much of their behavior is intrinsic to their structure and how much is learned. With Gems, it seems as though it might be easier, unless I'm misunderstanding your construction?"

Peridot was squinting a little bit at that.

"Have you met any other Gems?"

Because boy howdy, Hannibal, Gems were far more structurally diverse than you could imagine.

Well, he was going by descriptions so far.

"I have not," he said. "Please, explain that to me."

"Gems are far more diverse than the humans that I've sene thus far, structurally," Peridot replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Humans vary in hue, but your basic structural make-up is the same, with the exception of your sexual characteristics and certain occasional discrepancies, is that correct?"

"On the surface, yes," Hannibal agreed. "However, at a biological and an atomic level, each of our bodies has many different systems and interactions within it. It can be difficult to determine which chemicals and structures are informing any one behavior."

"A Gem's function depends on many structural factors as well," Peridot noted. "The composition of the ground in the Kindergarten they were made in, what Gem they are in the first place. There's very little variation between Peridots at a glance, but if you're talking about the entire Gem race, it's like... like comparing Bismuths to Carnelians. Or Pearls!"

These were all very different things, in case anybody was wondering.

"Ah, that is quite a range of Gems," Hannibal said. "So it isn't only what we would consider crystalline gemstones - you have a large range of beings."

Perdiot nodded her head.

"All with their own rage of abilities and purposes, engineered using materials from planets clear across our known universe."

First Aid for Fandom | Thursday, period 1

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